Pictures from an athletic field contractor

[Lastkidpicked]

@WinterDeere is correct. Cool season (northern) and warm season (southern) grasses are very different. Growing and maintaining them are very different. I really wouldn't know how to deal with cool season grasses.

This is what I like about these threads. Watching @Complete Turf Care have no big ego to get in the way and be generous to acknowledge other members and their comments.

Please keep up your hard work. We all appreciate it!

 

[Complete Turf Care]

Spent the last 2 days verticutting greens at a nice golf course in Baton Rouge.
Golf maintenance starts at 5am every morning, so I had to leave my shop at 4am to get there by around 5:30 and get started at first light.
We cut in one direction first, then they came behind me and cleaned up. Then I cut at about a 45 degree angle on the second cut.

 

[EddieWalker]

What does that do for the grass?

 

[Complete Turf Care]

What does that do for the grass?

It stimulates new growth, it removes some thatch, and it brings up some sand and re-deposits it on top, which is topdressing. Topdressing also helps manage thatch.

The golfers won't be happy until it grows back in a couple of weeks

 

[EddieWalker]

I'm always wondering if I can improve the quality of my pasture by doing some of the things you are doing? I know it's not the same thing, but it does make me think about new ways to improve my grass.

 

[Complete Turf Care]

I'm always wondering if I can improve the quality of my pasture by doing some of the things you are doing? I know it's not the same thing, but it does make me think about new ways to improve my grass.

I would say that weed control and fertilizer would give you the most bang for your buck on pastures.
If you still want to spend more, aeration would probably be the next step.

 

[WinterDeere]

1. Soil test, you're flying blind without it.
2. Get your pH right. You can throw all the money in the world at fertilizer and seed, but if the pH is way off, it's all a waste. pH correction is both cheap and critical to everything else.
3. Spring pre-emergent weed block, usually mixed with a granular fertilizer.
4. Split up nutrient needs (from soil test report) over 3 - 4 applications given in spring and fall. Avoid mid-summer fertilation (although that might be my cool season turf grass experience talking... Complete Turf Care will know better).
5. Plug aerator in the fall, when conditions are moist. Works very well if done immediately before any over-seeding.

Plug aeration can also help in the spring, but it's difficult to work it's timing around the application of your pre-emergent weed block. The weed block forms a thin chemical barrier in the top layer of soil, and aeration basically puches that barrier full of holes. Most weed blocks have an effective timing of 8 - 14 weeks, so you want to be sure the one you put down doesn't interfere with any fall over-seeding plans. Aeration can shorten its effective window a bit, but you'll still have low seed yield if you put the two too close together on the calendar.

Up here, we have to worry more about summer fertilization, because our cool-season grasses take such a beating from the heat. We also have to worry about snow mold, which kills a lot of grass in our wetter winters, although this is mostly avoided by working your cutting height down to "scary short" over the course of the fall, to where our last cutting usually happens at heights approaching a golf course fairway... while it's starting to snow!

 

[Complete Turf Care]

@WinterDeere is correct again. Your county agent is a good local source of information.

And you can fertilize in the summer on warm season grasses. Just be sure to read and understand the label on any pesticides you apply. Some products are not labeled for pastures.

 

[Complete Turf Care]

Something a little different today. This is a root pruning machine. We use it on golf courses to prune the tree roots along the fairways so that the trees don't steal the moisture and nutrients from the grass in the fairways.
It will cut roots up to about 4-5" diameter. It will rock your world when you hit a big root